Monday, September 14, 2009

The fourth generalized elections

The fourth generalized elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies in 1967 caused a semipolitical earthquake in the country. The Congress, the ruling band at the Centre and in States, came in for a impolite shock. Though it managed to keep curb of the Lok Sabha, its majority was very thin. In octad States including Tamil Nadu, the Congress’ monopoly of power was broken. In Tamil Nadu, since that election, the Congress has not been able to capture power again. The Negro who was chiefly responsible for this historic circumstance was C.N. Annadurai (1909-1969), founder of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and digit of the beloved leaders of the State.

One can attribute a sort of factors — rice shortage caused by the back-to-back drought spells of 1965 and 1966, arithmetic bourgeois of semipolitical alliance, attempt on digit of DMK’s popular icons M.G. Ramachandran and the anti-Hindi agitation — to the dramatic victory of the DMK. But Anna, as Annadurai was and is still called by his semipolitical followers, was the central figure in this triumph. He had remained convergent in achieving his semipolitical goal ever since he launched the DMK in 1949. And, his emergence as a principal leader in the State ordered the groundwork for the growth of regional parties in the State.